A Thought About Modern Wave Surfing
I’m getting a lot of info from the BSA about upcoming contests and it makes me a bit sad to see surfing going that way on Barbados. Trying to shoehorn surfing into an olympic sport is a serious misunderstanding of what surfing is all about. Every wave is different, each surfer has his own style and there exists no serious basis or framework for producing a winner or a loser beyond the artificial and silly constructs in “professional” surfing. Just because clothing companies need a champion to sell their shirts and swimwear to teens doesn’t give legitimacy to the concept of surfing as a competitive sport. Take the beautiful art as it is rather than trying to twist it into a beach version of a track and field event. In my humble opinion surfing contests cheapen wave riding by dividing surfers into winner and losers. If your a surfer you are surely a winner no matter what a “judge” tells you.
Doncha think?